Familiar Name

      Thanks to Tamara's Disney+ account, I'm getting caught up with The Mandalorian.  I think it owes as much to the tightly-written half-hour episodes of Have Gun -- Will Travel* as it does to Clint Eastwood's "Spaghetti Westerns," storytelling with no room for self-indulgence by the screenwriter or director.  Oh, it's still a little hardware-happy; from the first film, the Star Wars franchise has tended to an ever-so-subtle nod to Gerry Anderson's SF work.  But there's no wasted screentime, no point where you'd feel okay dashing to the kitchen to bring back a snack.  It's all working, all the time.

      Like the Richard Boone series, most episodes come to a morally satisfying (but not saccharine) conclusion, something that has become uncommon in a day of TV programs featuring cheap laughs, cheap thrills and cheap sensation. 

      But what caught my eye last night at the end of the first episode of the second season was a familiar and unusual name in the credits.  Had I really seen it?  Sure enough, Shawna Trpcic, costume designer for Firefly, was in charge of costuming for the second season of The Mandalorian!  Her work added a lot to the older series and I'm happy to see her on this job.

      "Pretty cunning, don't you think?"
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* If you enjoy episodic genre fiction, I highly recommend this series.  Yes, it's black-and-white, old-timey TV, but the writing is at least up to the standards of the best pulps, the directing and editing is outstanding, the cinematography is never less than competent and usually far better, and the acting is generally first-rate.  Richard Boone inhabits his character comfortably.